Columbia/Barnard Architecture Workshop

aliens

Architecture is a machine, an algorithm, an instrument that is employed in an attempt to prescribe normative space. In this interaction humans become both input and operator, being consumed by the building and consuming through it. The spa attempts to unfold this dialectic into a linear procession from engine room to cathedral, from the practical to the sublime, from Centre Pompidou to Amiens. Literally lifted off the ground the building creates a vacuum in which its users are able to navigate gradients of transparency and functionality, becoming increasingly obscure as they ascend the structure. The building’s tripartite Aristotelian division suggests a narrative that opposes and complements the adjacent place of worship. Its auxiliary program, a library, provides a place of contemplation and respit that fractures the linear progression of the remaining building and ultimately gives expression to the irreducible dialectic the building as a whole attempts to circumscribe.

Opened just two years ago, in fall 2013, as a public bath and library, the building situated on W Houston St lifted off into the night sky last evening according to eye witness reports. Critics had already questioned its merit as a functional building when it first opened due to its unusual exterior but now it is becoming increasingly clear that the construction served as a covert operation for inhabitants of planet X-2138-PF9 to return to their mother ship. The U.S. government at the time of writing was not available for further comment. A city spokesperson said that he could neither deny nor confirm a possible involvement of the Franciscan Briar church situated just next door that has been suspected to be involved with alien operations for over a decade now.